Sharks draw breath before Loftus semifinal battle

Drained after an energy-sapping win over Munster, the Sharks are planning to adjust their training schedule to draw breath ahead of Saturday’s semifinal battle against the Bulls, coach John Plumtree said.

The Sharks and Irish powerhouses Munster were level at 24 at the end of normal time after a titanic United Rugby Championship quarterfinal tussle in Durban.

Then, after 20 minutes of extra time, the teams remained deadlocked and a tiebreaker kickoff was required to separate the teams. 

Leinster will face the Glasgow Warriors in Saturday’s first semifinal at 3.45pm at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, after they defeated the Scarlets 33-21 in the other quarterfinal.

The Loftus Versfeld clash, which is expected to attract a capacity 52,000 crowd, kicks off at 6.15pm.

“Even in my long career, I’ve never seen anything like that game against Munster,” Plumtree said.

“I’m exhausted. That was a tough 100-plus minutes. “We will get the group together and see how everybody is doing.

“We might have to adjust our programme a little. I’m just glad we had those boys on the pitch kicking for goal.

“The Hendrikse brothers [Jordan and Jaden] and Bradley Davids, who came off the bench.

“The plan was to get Bradley on and sub Makazole Mapimpi.

“JP Pietersen was in the coaching box and was confident Brad was going to do the job.

“It was a little frustrating, it came down to that. It was never a plan we as coaches discussed during the week, but Neil Powell [Sharks director of rugby] had a pitch plan and knew which side the boys would be more comfortable on.

“And everyone was pretty calm in the coaching box.

“I was hopeful it wouldn’t get to that, because during the first half of extra time, we dominated territory and possession, but didn’t take the opportunity. I was a little frustrated, and as I said, it shouldn’t have come down to placekicking.

“However, there were a lot of tired bodies and I am proud of how everyone kept calm and trusted the plan.”

“Though we were calm in the change room — we’ve been in that spot the last few weeks — we needed to tidy up a few things.

“The main issue was that when we got momentum, we played too deep. In the second half, we started playing a little flatter and were a bit more dangerous.

“I thought we were the best attacking team out there, even if we didn’t take all our opportunities. So it puts us in good stead for Saturday.”

Sharks skipper Eben Etzebeth thanked his goal-kickers for keeping cool heads when the pressure was on.

“I thought it would be over before the 100 minutes,” he said.

“And then going to goal kicks. I don’t know how those guys felt. Having to take those kicks must be very stressful. Thank goodness, we won that lottery.”

Davids said he spent extra hours training to perfect his kicking drill.